LATEST BARGAINING NEWS

MGEU leadership filed an unfair labour practice with the Manitoba
Labour Board on Friday, January 5, 2018. Through a Labour Board hearing,
the union could argue that employers must stop stalling and begin
negotiations immediately in good faith.

The Labour Board scheduled hearing dates for June 20 and 21, 2018. In
early May, however, the government proclaimed Bill 29, but gave few
details about exactly
when and how the representation votes will be held. Given this, the MGEU
agreed to put our unfair labour practice hearing on
hold, on condition: the government must move forward
steadily, and in good faith, with these votes and get HCSS members back
to the table
as soon as possible,or the MGEU can and will request new hearing dates
with the
Labour Board.

At this point, we expect the votes to be called within the next month or so

Overview of Bargaining So Far

The St. Amant Support Bargaining Committee held meetings to gather ideas and proposals for improving the collective agreement on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.

The Committee then reviewed these proposals and worked to put them together into a package to present to the employer.

As of December 31, 2017, even though HCSS collective agreements had expired and the St. Amant
Support - Local 92 Bargaining Committee was ready and eager to get
going, negotiations had not begun. Employers were unwilling to
schedule
bargaining dates.

One issue is that the government has said they want HCSS workers in each
region to be covered by one union and one collective agreement — but
they haven’t told the unions or the employers exactly how this will
happen, or when.

In the mean time, the MGEU has been working on the issue of wage freezes.

Last spring, the government announced that they would not consider
giving any public service workers any general pay increase for the first
two years of their new contract.

This legislation, known as Bill 28 or The Public Services Sustainability Act, is not fair.

So the MGEU has formed, along with the other unions, the Partnership to Defend Public Services. This Partnership will
be challenging the government in court because what they’re doing goes
against Canadian laws — all workers have the right to negotiate a fair
contract, including their wages.